These inventions relate to the field of fire fighting systems and methods, and more specifically, to comprehensive fire fighting systems and methods that automatically optimize fire fighting activities by integrating image acquisition and analysis, expert systems using fuzzy logic rule-based decision making, satellite positioning and tracking systems and advanced communication methods.
Fires frequently result in significant disasters that cause loss of personal property and human life. The failure to timely detect fires and optimally control fire fighting activities causes the unnecessary loss of considerable natural resources. Proper management of fires is complicated by the large and remote areas in which the fires often occur, the difficulty in detecting the fires at early stages, and problems associated with efficient dispatching and tracking of fire fighting equipment and crews. The Western United States, for example, is particularly vulnerable to destruction by fire, due to its wide expanses of open forest areas in mountainous terrains and its frequently dry condition. In addition, weather conditions such as high winds contribute to the rapid spread of fires, resulting in the destruction of large areas.
Fire fighters have adopted several modern technologies to assist in the coordination of fire fighting activities. For example, the use of two way radios enables fire fighters to remain in close communication while coordinating fire fighting efforts. Helicopters and aircraft frequently assist in the attempt to contain fire damage by dropping water or other fire fighting agents on portions of the fire. More recently, efforts were reported that use airborne video cameras to monitor areas of a fire and that provide real-time video imaging signals to assist fire fighters in assessing the extent and location of fires. Positioning systems such as GPS (Global Positioning System) have also been suggested for use in data logging images of fires, fire perimeters, dozer lines, boundaries, etc. See "Real Time Image Analysis And Visualization From Remote Video For Fire And Resource Management," Advanced Imagery. May 1994, at pp. 30-32, incorporated herein by reference.
The efforts described above represent important advances in fire fighting technology. However, they do not take full advantage of modern expert computer systems, satellite positioning technology and communication methods. Importantly, prior fire fighting systems and methods fail to quickly detect fires, and to optimize and organize the entire fire fighting effort. The need exists for fire fighting systems and methods that take advantage of modern computer imaging and global positioning technology, coupled with expert system decision logic (e.g., fuzzy logic), to assist in quickly detecting fires and organizing and optimizing the overall fire fighting effort.